Русская версияFor more than 10 years, the OSCE maintained a small field office in
South Ossetia, a breakaway region of Georgia that has seen periodic
fighting in the years following the disintegration of the
Soviet Union.
Yet after fighting between Russia and Georgia broke out earlier
this month, the OSCE found itself in the line of fire.
OSCE
evacuated the half dozen military monitors found assigned to South
Ossetia's capital city of Tskhinvali after the office building was
shelled.
On Tuesday, Aug. 19, after initial resistance from Russia, the OSCE
has gotten the green light to send 20 unarmed military monitors to
the conflict region. The first observers will begin arriving by the
end of this week with another 70-80 expected soon after.
But it remains unclear whether the peacekeepers will be allowed in
the disputed area of South Ossetia.
An uneasy relationship
The OSCE has said that peacekeepers "will be deployed immediately
to the area adjacent to South Ossetia," after Russia demanded that
the monitors be kept out of the center of the conflict zone.
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The OSCE wants to ensure that aid can reach people
Finding a consensus on where exactly observers will be allowed to
go is an "extremely difficult thing," said Aleksi Harkonen, the
representative of Finland which currently holds the OSCE
chairmanship.
The conflict started when Georgia launched a military
offensive against South Ossetia, an area closely allied to
Russia. Moscow put a stop to the Georgian operation, sending
troops, tanks and warplanes into the area. Both sides have signed a
ceasefire agreement, but Russia has been slow to withdraw its
troops.
On Tuesday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev promised to withdraw
all but 500 Russian troops from Georgia by Friday, according
to French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office.
Humanitarian aid a priority
The job of the unarmed OSCE officers will be to observe the
ceasefire between Georgia and Russia, thereby paving the way for
humanitarian organizations to come to the conflict zone, Finland's
Harkonen said.
"Now for the first time we have the chance of independent
assessment," he said.
The first destination for OSCE monitors will be Gori, a Georgian
town south of South Ossetia, to observe the withdrawal of Russian
forces there, the senior Finnish diplomat said.
UN agencies and non-governmental organizations appealed for 40
million euros ($58.6 million) to provide relief aid for tens of
thousands of civilians displaced by the conflict.
Russia, South Ossetia unhappy
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OSCE monitors pulled out of Tskhinvali after fighting began
On Monday, the president of South Ossetia said he would not allow
international observers back into his region.
"We have no confidence in these international observers, in these
people who corrupt the truth," South Ossetian President Eduard
Kokoity told Reuters in an interview.
Russia, a member of OSCE, has also become a vocal critic of the
organization in recent years. It has accused the 56-member group of
being unfairly influenced by European members and the United
States.
Overcoming differences
Russia and Georgia had strong disagreements about the OSCE mission.
Russia had initially said that it wanted monitors only after its
troops had withdrawn from Georgia. Tbilisi had demanded that
monitors be allowed inside South Ossetia.
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Stubb wants monitors in the conflict zone as soon as possible
"The key now is to have the monitors in there, and then we'll see
how we can solve the situation in the long term," Finnish
Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb said.
The Finnish minister said he would travel to Georgia on Thursday
"to check out that everything is running at least fairly smoothly"
and to ensure that the monitors have free access "to the areas in
and near the conflict zones."
(Deutsche Welle)
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